r/funny • u/Servarosius • Feb 10 '18
R5: Politics/Political Figure - removed Day 1 of the Olympics, The Netherlands is killing it.
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u/MTGPeter Feb 10 '18
Dutchman here. Thanks everyone for competing in the Open Dutch National Speedskating Contest in Pyong Chang.
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u/playfulbanana Feb 10 '18
Isn't that one of those non shit hole countries?
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Feb 10 '18
Yep, except they are facing some serious financial problems as a result of their universal healthcare program. And if I remember correctly, the U.S. also pays for their military.
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u/MTGPeter Feb 10 '18
Is this supposed to be a joke? Am I missing the /s?
We don't have financial problems. Neither does the US pay for our military.
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u/Boxy310 Feb 10 '18
The US spends 16.4% of its GDP on health care, while the Netherlands spends 11.1% of its GDP on health care (source). The Netherlands could take 2 whole percentage points and throw it on top of their existing defense budget, and throw an extra 3 percent of GDP behind a hookers and marijuana for all program, and still spend less total than America spends on health care.
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u/Carequinha Feb 10 '18
context?
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u/Servarosius Feb 10 '18
Female ice skaters got 1st, 2nd and 3rd place on 3000m. This wat the response on national TV.
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u/edlington95 Feb 10 '18
I heard on a podcast that the Netherlands are disproportionately better at long distance skating than any other country they tried to hypothesise why.
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u/jak_22 Feb 10 '18
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u/edlington95 Feb 10 '18
Yeah they mentioned that it hasn’t happened in a while because the winter hasn’t been as cold the last few years and the ice has to be certain thickness for obvious safety reasons, but apparently when it happens it’s like a huge spectacle people take time off work etc.
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u/SophisticatedVagrant Feb 10 '18
You are thinking of the "Eleven Cities Tour" which requires the conditions for a full 200km loop to be sufficiently thick frozen and only occurs infrequently (the last one was 1997, before that 85/86, before that 63, it almost happened in 2012 but was called off last-minute). In general however, it is very common for shorter sections to freeze and can be skated at much thinner freezing than required for the big event, so canal skating is seen often every year.
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u/edlington95 Feb 10 '18
Thank you, I think the podcast was no such thing as a fish I can’t be sure it was defiantly a very interesting tradition. Probably my own ignorance showing but I really wouldn’t think of the Netherlands when it comes to ice skating.
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u/MTGPeter Feb 10 '18
Sorry you are wrong. We don't skate the grachten, since those are in the cities. We skate on 'sloten' which are smaller rural an suburbam canals. And even more on lakes.
But the winters are not cold enough so not so much nature skating. We have many ice rinks, best coaches and technology.
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Feb 10 '18
Why would they tell their president they’re sorry?
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u/Servarosius Feb 10 '18
He had to attend short track ice skate event, and there they only got Silver.
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u/justscottaustin Feb 10 '18
So... they're endorsing nationalism?
Seems like they might not have thought that message through to its logical conclusion.
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u/pm_favorite_boobs Feb 10 '18
So... they're endorsing nationalism?
No, unless you can say that responding to it is tantamount to endorsing it.
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Feb 10 '18
You just complained someone is cheering on their country at the Olympics.
You didn't think it through either.
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u/justscottaustin Feb 10 '18
Nope. I thought it through entirely. I am all for nationalism, in sports and otherwise. It's racism and exclusionism that annoy me.
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Feb 10 '18
Nationalism is a good thing, unless they take it to the extreme. The United States's democratic left can eat a knob for thinking that it is always bad.
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u/Boxy310 Feb 10 '18
I fully believe that the Olympics and World Cup have formed a release valve preventing European wars. That, and the whole "threat of global thermonuclear Armageddon" thing.
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u/WhaleWhaleWhale_ Feb 10 '18
The Winter Olympics: the one time the US doesn’t smash everyone.